A bitter battle is brewing between two of the country’s largest radio station operators — and the fallout could hit the New York market as soon as this summer, The Post has learned.

The battle centers on Big Apple radio rights to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, the top two radio hosts in the country, whose contract with Cumulus Media’s WABC runs out at the end of the year.

Both Limbaugh and Hannity are syndicated by Clear Channel’s Premiere Networks, and most in the radio community believe Bob Pittman, CEO of Clear Channel, will next year move the two to WOR, a down dial rival to WABC which Clear Channel bought last year.

In fact, the management at WABC has recently become resigned to losing the hosts of its highest-rated shows, one station insider told The Post.

Talks between Premiere and Cumulus are expected to begin soon, but most feel the two are all but out the door.

“It will be completed by the summer,” said a second source, speaking of the deal to bring Limbaugh and Hannity to WOR.

Cumulus CEO Lew Dickey is said to be weighing a move of Michael Savage’s biting conservative talk show from its 9 p.m.-to-11 p.m. slot on WABC to Hannity’s afternoon drive-time slot if he loses Hannity, the insider said.

People close to Cumulus, the Atlanta-based radio giant that owns 505 stations, including WPLJ in New York, said Dickey has not given up and still hopes to re-sign the two.

A Cumulus spokesman said, “We dismiss [the exit talk] as rumors, just like the last false rumor we heard that the amazing Don Imus would be broadcasting on WOR as of Jan. 1, 2013.”

Imus — who is syndicated by Cumulus Media Networks, unlike Limbaugh and Hannity — re-signed with the parent company station after the morning host had flirted with WOR.

Dickey’s team believes Cumulus controls the morning talk airwaves in key markets — like Chicago and Detroit — and, in fact, carries Limbaugh and Hannity on its stations in other cities.

Cumulus brass feel that will give them a leg up in talks in New York, sources said.

Overall, Clear Channel owns 850 stations in more than 150 US markets.

Talks between Premiere and Cumulus will likely be centered on money — how much Limbaugh and Hannity are worth.

Dickey is not one to take a challenge lying down.

When ESPN Radio told Dickey it wanted to take over the job of ad sales on its joint venture, Cumulus left the Bristol, Conn., company and, this month, launched a joint venture with CBS Sports Radio.

Under the deal, Cumulus sells advertising and provides back-office support for CBS Sports Radio programming.